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Jinggoy, Rabusa to Angie: Bring the cases on 02/01/2011

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Jinggoy, Rabusa to Angie: Bring the cases on

02/01/2011
Former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes’ retaliatory legal action against the key witness in his alleged receipt of payola from the military funds and Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada drew flak from senators.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said the Department of Justice (DoJ) can already conduct a preliminary investigation, based on the records of the Jan. 27 proceedings of the Senate blue ribbon committee, and issue a petition for a writ of attachment.

The petition would seek to place under freeze order the assets and bank accounts of the persons in question.
“There is no longer any need to wait for the Senate Blue Ribbon com-mittee to finish its investigation. The transcript of the hearings can be furnished the DoJ,” she said.

The said petition, Santiago said, should cover not only Reyes but the two other former AFP Chiefs of Staff – Diomedio Villanueva and Roy Cimatu – who, based on the testimony of former AFP budget military
officer Col. (ret.) George Rabusa, received millions of funds from their so-called “slush funds” also known as the provision for command-directed activities..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110201hed2.html

Palace non-committal on Piatco settlement bid By Aytch S. de la Cruz 02/01/2011

Palace non-committal on Piatco settlement bid

By Aytch S. de la Cruz 02/01/2011
The Palace issued a deadpan comment on the proposal of the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc. (Piatco) consortium which built the expropriated Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) for a 90-10 sharing agreement with the government under a joint venture to settle a lingering dispute, saying Piatco has yet to submit a formal offer.

Piatco proposed a Joint Venture Agreement-Gross Revenue Sharing proposal to allow the government to operate NAIA-3 without any legal obstacles with 90 percent of revenues going to the consortium as its primary contractor and 10 percent for the government.

Although the government has been made aware of this plan, Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Secretary Ricky Carandang said the Palace cannot yet comment on it because it has yet to receive Piatco’s formal proposal.

Carandang, in a phone interview, said he was told by Transportation and Communications Secretary Jose de Jesus that the government that he has not received a copy of the proposal that details what Piatco has to offer..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110201hed3.html

CBCP hits RH bill anew, says measure a form of ‘moral corruption’ 02/01/2011

CBCP hits RH bill anew, says measure a form of ‘moral corruption’

02/01/2011
Leaders of the Catholic church have called on the people to once again “act together” in condemning the Reproductive Health (RH) bill following the House panel’s approval of the consolidated version of the birth control measure.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), in its pastoral letter entitled “Choosing Life, Rejecting the RH Bill,” said “moral choices” today are at the “crossroads” again which calls for necessary action from the people even as it noted that the controversial bill is a form of “moral corruption.”

The bishops cited President Aquino’s popular pronouncement “if there’s no corruption, there would be no poverty, but the bishops said that “moral corruption” is really the root of all corruption.

“On the present issue, it would be morally corrupt to disregard the moral implications of the RH bill. This is our unanimous, collective moral judgment,” the statement read..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110201hed4.html

Politics Economy Human Rights OFWs & Migration Agrarian Reform Labor & Employment Urban Poor Environment Education Indigenous Peoples Women & Children Health Media Culture Poetry Salungguhit Webcasts Slideshow Video Audio / Podcast Photo of the Week Street Shooter Democratic Space Press Releases LATEST STORIES • San Juan Police, Execs Harassed Members of Progressive Media During Demolition • LFS to Aquino: Learn from Arab-world protests, address roots of poverty to end insurgency (PR) • POEA Urged to Stop Illegal Deployment in Uncertified Countries (PR) • Workers Condemn Wyeth-Pfizer Bad Faith Bargaining (PR) • Gloria Behind ‘Pabaon’ System in Military – KMU (PR) • Pugad: Alay sa Bgy. Corazon de Jesus • Sa Ina na Taga-Cairo • Bayan Expresses Solidarity with People of Egypt (PR) • In Philippine Hospitals, a Scam Preys on New Nurses • News in Pictures: Pinaglabanan Folk Protest Violent Demolition, Urge Noynoy to Conduct Swift Investigation • Noynoy as Inquirer’s ‘Filipino of the Year’? WTF? • Photo of the Week: The Other Side • ILPS Salutes and Congratulates People of Egypt IN MEMORIAM PHOTO OF THE WEEK [Click to view larger image and read caption] The Other Side SALUNGGUHIT [Click to view larger image and read caption] Noynoy Is ‘Pro-Porsche’ STREET SHOOTER [Click to view larger image and read caption] Old Street Musician TEXT ADS Newspaper Index [Read Bulatlat on your phone. Go to www.bulatlat.com] In Philippine Hospitals, a Scam Preys on New Nurses

Many hospitals are charging new nurses fees in exchange for work, training and experience, which are required for nursing jobs abroad. This offshoot of the government’s exploitative labor-export policy needs to stop, according to the Gabriela Women’s Party.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — Kit, 26, is a licensed nurse but currently unemployed.  To her, the recent hearings at the House of Representatives about hospitals collecting fees from new nurses in exchange for letting them earn their first work experience in their hospital only confirmed that what she went through five years ago is still a reality today.

In 2005, Kit had to pay a private hospital in Manila so she could work there as a full-time nurse for two months. A newly licensed nurse at the time, she had to get a record or “experience” of having worked at a hospital before she could be considered for long-term employment in other hospitals here or abroad. She paid P2,000, or about $45, in 2005 for two months of full-time work at the hospital.


On January 25, Gabriela Women’s Party Representatives Luzviminda Ilagan and Emmi De Jesus, together with Ang NARS President Leah Paquiz, NARS ng Bayan President Eleanor Nolasco, and Alliance of Young Nurse Leaders and Advocates President Alvin Dakis, filed a House Resolution urging President Aquino to immediately put to a stop the collection of exploitative training fees from professional nurses under various forms of volunteer training programs. Hospitals earn additional income from this scheme by filling the needed nursing staff at a lesser cost or for free. “This is unpaid labor in the guise of volunteerism,” says Gabriela Rep. De Jesus. (Photos courtesy of Gabriela Women’s Party / bulatlat.com)
































“You cannot say no to this ‘regulation’,” Kit, who asked that her real name not be used, told Bulatlat.com. If you refused, you will never get your first record of “training” or experience, she said. Besides, while they were working in the hospital under this arrangement, their hope was to get absorbed later by the same hospital. Others regard the work experience to be earned as supporting material for job applications abroad.

With a sister-in-law still in nursing school today, Kit said that even without the congressional hearings she knows that the practice of charging nurses in return for a chance to work for the first time in a hospital is still prevalent. Only a few hospitals do not charge their nurses with such fees, she said, citing for example the East Avenue Medical Center. “But you can ‘work’ there for only a month”. In Fairview General Hospital, “you can work as nurse without paying the hospital for up to five months.”

Recently, the long-standing issue of Filipino nurses was tackled in the House of Representatives, prompting some hospital executives to dare nurses to name the hospitals involved. Unfortunately, few young nurses readily came out although some have spoken on condition of anonymity.

With 280,000 nurses unemployed today, based on a “conservative estimate” of Leah Samaco-Paquiz of Ang Nars, younger nurses may be fearful of speaking out against their prospective employers.
 
Still, senior nurses backed by their professional organizations –  such as the NARS ng Bayan president Eleanor Nolasco, Ang NARS president Leah Paquiz and Alliance of Young Nurse Leaders and Advocates President Alvin Dakis –  joined the progressive party-list representatives in Congress last week in filing a resolution calling for an end to this practice..... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/01/31/in-philippine-hospitals-a-scam-preys-on-new-nurses/

AFP wives, kids dip into slush funds By Angie M. Rosales, Mario J. Mallari and 02/01/2011

PALACE SPARES CIMATU; DND PROBE WON’T TOUCH INCUMBENT COS, OFFICERS AYTCH S. DE LA CRUZ

AFP wives, kids dip into slush funds

By Angie M. Rosales, Mario J. Mallari and 02/01/2011

It’s all in the top military brass’ family.
Even the generals’ wives have dipped their fingers into the military’s multi-billion “slush funds” at the time when retired Col. George Rabusa was still the budget officer of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
The generals’ wives, at least two of them — Teresita Reyes, wife of former AFP Chief of Staff Gen. and Erlinda Ligot, the spouse of retired AFP comptroller Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot — enjoyed countless foreign travels, along with “hefty shopping money.”

These were indicated in the documents already in the possession of Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada which came alongside developments that two other military officials can attest to the delivery of the P50 million purported “send off” cash gift to Reyes that the former delivered, togther with Ligot, shortly before the retirement of the former AFP chief.

While Malacañang has taken a “hardline” stance in the case of Reyes and former comptroller Carlos Garcia who has been accused of plunder, and despite some of President Aquino’s appointees being implicated in the same send-off gifts in the millions, the Palace yesterday virtually absolved former chief of staff Roy Cimatu, who is now with the Aquino administration, saying Cimatu deserves to be given the “benefit of the doubt.”.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110201hed1.html

SC to take up contempt raps vs critics in Vizconde ruling By Benjamin B. Pulta 02/01/2011

SC to take up contempt raps vs critics in Vizconde ruling

By Benjamin B. Pulta 02/01/2011

The contempt threat against outspoken critics of the Supreme Court (SC)’s decision on the Vizconde case is to be taken up by the tribunal today.

Court administrator and spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said the matter is among the items in the court’s agenda and includes the “compliance” filed by lawyer Ferdinan Topacio.

“That compliance is included in the agenda today. I dont want to preempt the court on how it will be resolved, if you recall the court made a distinction between Mr. Vizconde and Topacio and Dante Jimenez (who was ordered to show cause why he should not be cited in contempt),” Marquez told reporters.

Marquez brushed aside reported threats to initiate impeachment proceedings against Associate Justice Antonio Carpio who inhibited himself from the proceedings..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110201nat1.html

A tiring cycle of promises EDITORIAL 01/31/2011

A tiring cycle of promises

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
01/31/2011
Noynoy made another superhero promise, lately, which was the prosecution of all those who helped themselves to military funds through the payola system in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), a scheme which seems to be endemic in the organization.
This is on top of his campaign vow to prosecute Gloria and her army of plunderers during the nine years that she was in power.
Expect another commission to look into the corrupt practices in the military, a Noynoy body that would likely be again questioned on its legality since its task is already provided for under the government’s structure.

And also expect Noynoy to make a lot of fuss about his straight path and his inability to realize it because of a “noisy minority” which is a poor copy of the “destructive politics” that Gloria used to raise about her critics whenever she gets stumped on corruption issues which was almost a daily occurrence during her watch..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110131com1.html

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